Fwd: Invitation: BCM with Andrew Wilson, Jana Kobzova and Edward Lucas on 'How long can the Belarussian model last?', 15th November
Беларус на чужыне | Belarusian Abroad
From: European Council On Foreign Relations <Lon...@ecfr.eu>
Date: 7 November 2011 15:02
Subject: Invitation: BCM with Andrew Wilson, Jana Kobzova and Edward Lucas on 'How long can the Belarussian model last?', 15th November
To: European Council On Foreign Relations <Lon...@ecfr.eu>
ECFR Black Coffee Morning
‘How long can the Belarusian model last?’
With Andrew Wilson, Senior Policy Fellow, ECFR and Jana Kobzova, Wider Europe Programme Coordinator, ECFR
Chaired by Edward Lucas, International Editor, The Economist
Tuesday 15th November, 8.30-9.30 am (registration from 8.15 am)
Venue: ECFR office, 3rd Floor Conference Room, 35 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9JA
RSVP: Email lon...@ecfr.eu
Dear Colleague,
The European Council on Foreign Relations is delighted to invite you to an invitation-only discussion entitled ‘How long can the Belarusian model last?’ with Andrew Wilson, senior policy fellow at ECFR and Jana Kobzova, wider Europe programme coordinator at ECFR and chaired by Edward Lucas, international editor at The Economist. The meeting will take place on Tuesday 15th November between 8:30 and 9:30 am at ECFR’s office in Westminster.
The Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka has been described as the ‘last dictator in Europe’. Before the elections last December there was also a case for saying that he was a reasonably successful dictator, in his own terms at least. But now the economy faces crisis and Lukashenka’s traditional foreign policy balancing act seems to have collapsed. Sanctions were reimposed and gradually extended by both the EU and US after the elections and the subsequent crackdown; but the West still has difficulty in forming a coherent policy towards Belarus.
Andrew Wilson is a Senior Policy Fellow at ECFR. He is a Reader in Ukrainian studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), University College London. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. He has published widely on the politics and culture of the European neighbourhood and on the comparative politics of democratisation in the post-Soviet states, especially its corruption by so-called ‘political technology’. He has published a new book Belarus. The Last European Dictatorship (Yale, 2011).
Jana Kobzova is the wider Europe programme coordinator at ECFR. Before joining ECFR, Jana headed the Belarus democratisation programme at the Bratislava-based Pontis Foundation between 2006 and 2009. Before that, she helped establish the Slovak branch of the European webzine ‘Café Babel'. Jana has co-authored several book chapters on Eastern Europe, the most recent being ‘The GreatPower (mis)Management’ (2011) as well as articles for various academic journals and media outlets, including EU Observer, E!Sharp and the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs.
Edward Lucas is the international editor of The Economist and has been a specialist in the countries of central and eastern Europe for more than 25 years with postings including Berlin, Moscow, Prague and Vienna. In the early 1990s he was the major shareholder of The Baltic Independent, an English-language weekly in the Baltic states. He is the author of The New Cold War: Putin’s Russia and the Threat to the West (2008) and of a forthcoming book on east-west espionage.
We very much hope to welcome you to this event. Places are limited, and will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Coffee and tea will be served from 8.15 am. Please confirm your participation as soon as possible by email to lon...@ecfr.eu. For more information about the work of the European Council on Foreign Relations please visit www.ecfr.eu.
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